The U.S. Department of Justice addressed the role of race in the country in education, elections and the economy during the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Geneva.

"The Justice Department also is aggressively prosecuting hate crimes," said Justice Department's Civil Rights Division's Deputy Assistant Mark Kappelhoff. "As a long-time federal prosecutor, I can tell you first-hand that the devastation caused by a single act of hate can reverberate through families, communities and the entire nation."

In regards to the right to vote, Kappelhoff recognized it as "one of the most fundamental promises of our democracy," but ensuring equal access to voting booths has become a problem. With the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to overturn sections of the Voting Rights Act last year, U.S. states have proposed or implemented measures that could restrict voting access to certain individuals.

"While the U.S. Supreme Court recently invalidated a part of this cornerstone civil rights law, we continue to use every legal tool available to take swift action against jurisdictions that have hindered equal access to the franchise," said Kappelhoff. 

The deputy assistant attorney general acknowledged his Civil Rights Division is challenging "discriminatory state election laws" in North Carolina and Texas. Kapplehoff also noted Attorney General Eric Holder is taking steps to give American Indians and Alaska Natives appropriate access to voting polls.

Racial discrimination in the education system is also a priority for the Civil Rights Division, according to Kapplehoff. He noted the Civil Rights Division is working to provide school districts an "equal educational opportunity" for all students.

Kapplehoff, who has been working to end the "school to prison pipeline," added, "Working with our partners at the Department of Education, we issued guidance to inform schools nationwide of their responsibility to establish nondiscriminatory policies and practices aimed at keeping young people in the classroom and out of the criminal justice system."

According to Kapplehoff, the housing and employment sectors are not immune of racial discrimination. He recognized discrimination complaints from housing and employment are in "large" volumes and his and fellow federal agencies continue to manage the cases. Although legally, segregation is over, work to eliminate unfair treatment and discrimination remains.

Kapplehoff shared stories of the Civil Rights Division's accomplishments in combatting racial discrimination in the workplace, notably the record civil penalties the division collected in 2013 resolving employment claims based on citizenship or national origin status courtesy of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

The housing crisis also provided difficult to Latino families as they paid more on loans due to their race or national origin. Kapplehoff also said Latino families led to more expensive and riskier subprime loans.

"No one should have to sleep less easily at night or live in fear that they too might be attacked simply because of their skin color, the country they were born in, their faith or whom they love," said Kapplehoff.